Bioinspired Tunable Structural Color Film with Janus Wettability and Interfacial Floatability towards Visible Water Quality Monitoring

Superwettability materials from existing natural creatures have been widely studied to enable artificial manufacture. Variable wettability states, especially Janus wettability, have attracted particular interest because of the applications in various intelligent systems. However, to date, most of these existing Janus wettability surfaces lack stimuli-response visualization, which requires the connection of electrical instruments to process and display external stimulus signals. Inspired by the functional performance of lotus leaf and Betta splendens, a multifunctional asymmetric film is designed by using the superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic binary cooperative strategy and tunable structural color feature. Thus, it is demonstrated that the Janus membrane could not only timely report the arrival of the environmental variables via directional migration induced by Marangoni effect, but also quantitively feedback the stimuli through visible structural color variations. These features indicate that the Janus wettability structural color film may open a potential chapter in designing and fabricating the multifunctional robotic environmental detector.

Automated summary

The study of superwettability materials, particularly Janus wettability, has attracted widespread interest. A multifunctional asymmetric film has been designed, combining superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic strategies and tunable structural color features, to timely report environmental variables and provide quantifiable feedback through visible structural color variations.